Changes to parking in Lewes seem likely to come in the near future, as the city acts on recommendation from a parking committee formed earlier this year.
At a work session last week, the city’s mayor and council got an update from City Manager Ellen Lorraine McCabe on concrete suggestions that could come to fruition relatively quickly. That includes continued work on city-owned parking lots at Otis Smith Park and on Schley Avenue. Also on the list of fixes is creating consistency in time limits for parking in some of those city lots, McCabe said.
“This isn't including the beach parking lots,” she explained. “This would be those lots excluding those, but making those three-hour parking limits.”
The three-hour limit would also apply to parking meters in the city, she said.
However, Councilman Joseph Elder pushed McCabe to also incorporate changes to the city’s policy of providing passes for on-street parking for some residents on the beach who don’t have off-street parking available. Elder would like to see the same policy extended to residents near the downtown area who live in places that have heavy congestion.
“You can't have one thing on one side of town and not afford the other people on the other side of town the same thing,” he said.
While the city does recognize handicapped parking passes and has a program of its own for mobility-challenged individuals who need on-street parking, Elder noted that not everyone wants to go through that process and that the city should be ensuring that older people have access to adequate parking.
“I'm big about our town allowing people to age in place. I think it's so important,” he said. “We don't want to see people breaking hips, trying to get to their houses when they're in their 70s or just not well.”
Mayor Amy Marasco suggested a stopgap measure.
“The compromise could be one spot, that way the residents in those congested areas downtown could at least get one spot sooner than later,” she suggested.
She added that looking into allowing two spots, as is the case with beach-facing houses, could be determined by a parking study and bringing in a parking consultant to create a master plan, another suggestion from McCabe’s list of improvements. That study would have to wait until the next budget year however. Hearings on next year’s budget are slated to begin in February.
Marasco was supportive of that idea.
“We constantly hire subject matter experts. Why not in this area?” she asked. “So I like your recommendation that we would actually go out and get a parking official who's done other size communities. They know the issues.”
Council members seemed eager to get started on implementing what changes they could as soon as practicable. McCabe is due to report back to council with a timeline in the coming weeks.
